DOGS OF WAR

The author's copy. Xerographic typescript, 430 pages printed on rectos only (29.8 x 21cm). Signed by the author. Bound in card covers, blue thin cloth tape spine. A good or better copy, the upper cover and spine covering detached but retained, the remainder of the page block firmly bound. The pages with a few light creases to the inner margin of the prelims, are otherwise clean and bright throughout. Rare, possibly unique in this form.

Inscribed by the author in black ink on the title sheet "Publisher's proof 1974 / Frederick Forsyth". This item forms part of a collection of the author's own proofs, manuscripts and film scripts, gifted to and inscribed for a close friend in 2017. A war novel featuring a group of European mercenary soldiers hired by a British industrialist to depose the government of the fictional African country of Zangaro. While researching the story Forsyth pretended to be preparing a coup d'état against Equatorial Guinea on behalf of the Igbo people whom he passionately supports, he was told it would cost US$240,000. His research was subject of a feature story in The Times, which posited he had commissioned the operation in earnest. UK National Archives documents released in 2005, reveal that in early 1973, several people in Gibraltar were planning a coup d'état against Equatorial Guinea, in the manner described in The Dogs of War. Several mercenaries were arrested by Spanish authorities in the Canary Islands on 23 January 1973, foiling the plot. Ironically, there was an actual coup d'état in Equatorial Guinea in 1979, when Francisco Macías Nguema, the left-wing dictator, was overthrown and killed by his nephew, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the right-wing president / dictator. In 2004, in a copycat plan based on Forsyth's book (a coup intended to secure lucrative mining rights granted by a client puppet government) was attempted. The plan involved the son of the former British Prime Minister, Mark Thatcher who was intending to trade on his mother's connections and reputation, and the mercenary Simon Mann, who subsequently stood trial and was convicted. Thatcher received a suspended prison sentence of four years, in 2008 Mann was sentenced to 34 years in prison, but was pardoned in 2009. [Forsyth, Frederick: The Biafra Story; Roberts, Adam:The Wonga Coup; Chittenden, Maurice: 'Forsyth: My Real Life Dogs of War Coup' (The Times, 11 June 2006); Barnett, Antony & Bright, Martin 'Pressure Grows To Strip Thatcher Title' Siddique, Haroon & Tremlett, Giles 'Simon Mann Pardoned Over Role in Equatorial Guinea Coup Plot' (The Guardian, 2 November 2009)]. The novel forms the basis for the 1980 John Irvin directed film of the same name starring Christopher Walken, Tom Berenger and Colin Blakely. Provenance: Frederick Forsyth; gifted to Sally Harrison (2017).